


And the Sweetest of Words

by 0hHeyThereBigBadWolf



Series: Barking at the Moon [3]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Light Angst, Multi, OT3, Pre-Relationship, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 22:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12068139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0hHeyThereBigBadWolf/pseuds/0hHeyThereBigBadWolf
Summary: Jacob Stone has two soulmates, he's in so much trouble it isn't even funny, and he doesn't know how to do any of this. Sometimes he thinks it would have been so much easier for him to just stay on the damn oilrig.





	And the Sweetest of Words

When Jake Stone's Words appear on his wrist, he knows that he's in so much trouble that it isn't even funny. He has two Words—two soulmates—and one of them is a man.

 _Zeke_ and  _Prodigy._

He doesn't have a problem with homosexuality or polyamory. It's the 21st century, people have a right to choose how they want to live their lives, so hey, to each their own. But his old man does. The folks in church kinda do, too.

Jake's heard the sermon enough times that he already knows if someone finds out he has two soulmates and one (perhaps both,  _Prodigy_ could be either) is a man, he's going to be cast out faster than he can say 'hellfire.'

So, the day after his Words appear, he finds a leather cuff that fits nicely around his wrist and covers up his Words completely, and he doesn't take it off.

* * *

He hates football. Seriously. But he's on the team anyways, because that's what's expected of hm, and he'll do just about anything to make that always-disappointed look in his old man's eyes go away. When they win State for the first time in twenty-two years, he actually sees his father smile.

It's also the last time he sees his father smile.

Still, he tries to cling to that moment, that one miniscule, fleeting moment where Pop was actually proud of him.

It lasts right up until he publishes his first paper on pre-Columbian cave paintings, and he begins his twenty-year lying streak of being someone else for the sake of his own sanity.

* * *

One day, out of the blue, he decides to look under his bracelets at his Words; he's avoided looking at them for so long, just so nobody will ask.

 _Zeke_ is gone, and now there's  _Thief,_ which worries him.

 _Prodigy_ has become  _Lost,_ which outright scares him.

He wishes he could go find them, maybe stop Zeke from stealing, maybe find the Prodigy.

He doesn't though—he's too much of a damn coward.

* * *

Jacob thinks that perhaps the Library will be his savior, the catalyst to finally let him shed all the lies and finally learn how to trust people again.

When he meets Cassandra Cillian, he thinks she's too trusting, too willing to see the good in people instead of watching out for the bad.

When he meets Ezekiel Jones, he thinks he's a damn pain in the ass, a cocky little smartass with absolutely no brain-to-mouth filter.

Cassandra betrays them, betrays  _him,_ and oh, does it ever hurt.

It doesn't connect for him until far later, until after Flynn has left them; only after does that stinging betrayal lose its initial bite does he see it.

Zeke is short for Ezekiel, and Cassandra is a child prodigy.

Oh, damn it.

* * *

Cassandra is no longer  _Lost._ Now she's  _Traitor,_ and he hates himself more than he'd have thought possible.

Ezekiel is still the  _Thief._ Still isn't  _Zeke_ , and he wonders when Ezekiel Jones appeared for Zeke to hide behind.

* * *

Cassandra comes back to him slowly, and he lets her in as best he knows how.

It isn't easy, he doesn't know how to  _do_ this.

He wants to tell her how much she means to him, how much he trusts and needs her, but the words stick in his throat.

He doesn't even know what the hell to say to Ezekiel anymore, other than something along the lines of 'please don't leave us.'

 _And the sweetest of words have the bitterest taste,_ he thinks to himself.

* * *

He learns that Cassandra is free with her trust, but she is not free with her  _self._ That is much harder to gain than her trust.

The tumor makes her afraid, afraid of caring so much, afraid of leaving behind someone just as broken as her.

But he earns it, bit by bit, and when he does, it is peace like he's never known, to be hers in a way nobody else is.

Jacob shows her his Words for the first time, smiling when he sees that he is  _Historian_ on her wrist, and she beams to see  _Darlin'_ on his.

Ezekiel is still the  _Thief,_ but they can both see the beginnings of  _Jones_ starting to take root underneath it.

* * *

Jacob is no longer scared of himself when it comes to Ezekiel, no longer scared he'll find a way to fuck it up just like he nearly did with Cassandra.

Now he finds that he is scared  _for_ Ezekiel, scared the little smartass is going to get the wrong idea in his head and try to leave them.

Cassandra places her wrist beside his so their Words line up, and she traces  _Jones_ across their skin with a happy sigh.

"We won't lose him," she whispers in the dark of the bedroom, and he believes her.

* * *

They nearly  _do_ lose him, but to a freaky-ass river monster in Australia, not to anything else truly terrifying, like love and fear.

Jacob doesn't want to let go of the man, and neither does Cassandra, it seems.

He exchanges a glance with her over the top of Ezekiel's head, and she agrees with her eyes.

They are going to make him theirs, and Jacob is not going to fuck it up this time, come hell or high water.

* * *

He hears Cassandra murmuring softly in the dark. Counting. How she can even speak after what they've done together is miraculous in its own right.

"Twenty-eight," she murmurs drowsily. "Twenty-eight days since we started. Twenty-eight, perfect number, days of the lunar cycle, adding all consecutive numbers from one to seven. Seven colours of the rainbow, seven deadly sins, seven cardinal virtues, seven pure notes on the diatonic scale. Four sevens is twenty-eight..."

"We have the weirdest pillow talk," Ezekiel mumbles, slightly muffled given that his face is buried in Cassandra's hair.

Jacob chortles softly into the darkness, his eyes closed and a smile playing at his lips. It's weird, but it's them, and it's right.

* * *

He has two soulmates, and Jacob loves them both.

He loves Cassandra, his darlin', and he needs her willingness to see the best in people because he lost that ability a long time ago.

He loves Ezekiel too, his personal pain in the ass, and he needs his lack of brain-to-mouth filter because he struggles to speak honestly like that.

He doesn't say the words aloud, but he means them nonetheless, and they love him, too.

Because sometimes, you love people in spite of their flaws, and sometimes, you love people for them.


End file.
